This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.
Two field trips helped to bring the realities of successful mine rehabilitation to life while complementing the scientific papers presented at the fifth annual Ontario Mine Reclamation Symposium. The event was held in Thunder Bay at Lakehead University in late June and it attracted more than 60 participants.
Sessions at the workshop dealt with topics such as the geology and mining history of Thunder Bay, wet peat mining, soil chemical properties in peat bogs, historic tailings disposal in lakes and forest floor species in areas near smelters.
Fifteen people went on the field trip to the nearby Shebandowan Mine, which operated as a nickel producer from 1973 to 1998. Reclamation activities have been successfully completed and the facility is now in a state of long-term care and maintenance.
Thirty two people went on the more extensive field trip to Beardmore and Geraldton and the Sturgeon River gold belt, where mining activity began in 1925. This expedition included a tour of the former MacLeod-Cockshutt gold mine. This site has been converted into and found new life as an interpretive centre and golf course, adding credence to the reality that mining is a temporary land use.
The Tom Peters Memorial Mine Reclamation Student Award was won by Laurentian University Masters of Science candidate Kendra Driscoll. She earned the $5,000 award and presented her paper on the buffering capacity of soils where previous land reclamation activities had been completed. This academic award is donated by Vale.
The OMA Environment Committee met at Lakehead University following the reclamation symposium. The agenda included a debriefing of the workshop and field trips, updates on key issues such as approvals modernization and toxics reductions and a presentation by the Thunder Bay Field Naturalists.
This group of amateur biologists is a non-governmental group, which has helped mining companies with their environmental management. The naturalists group has done surveys and catalogued species in specific areas. It has done work previously for Vale and Goldcorp.
The mine reclamation symposium is run jointly by the Ontario Mining Association and the Canadian Land Reclamation Association. Previous events have been held in Sudbury (2011), Elliot Lake (2010), Timmins (2009) and Kirkland Lake (2008).
The purpose of the mine rehabilitation conference and field trips is to encourage the pursuit of excellence in mine reclamation, share knowledge, information and research results and to learn best practices. It is also to promote a better understanding of the outstanding achievements in mine reclamation to Ontario’s mining industry, the environmental community and the broader public.